


Tubthumping

by dreamonlosers



Category: Metal Gear
Genre: Blood, Family, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Psychosis, abuse of hyphens and ellipse, are some bumps along the way, these guys just try to deal with shit and they communicate but there, yes i live in florida. no i know nothing about this place, you know. the usual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2020-01-14 20:19:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18483646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamonlosers/pseuds/dreamonlosers
Summary: The world started to come back to David. He sat back on his haunches and blinked as the park slowly stopped spinning around him. The man would be unrecognizable under the mask to whoever found his body in the morning, his face nothing but pulp and gore.





	Tubthumping

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing for MGS - their voices are so hard to capture! I did my best, so let me know how I did :)
> 
> Warnings for this include death, violence, guns, mentions of alcoholism, vomit and smoking. 
> 
> Also, I guess that this is a slight AU where they got Sunny as a little baby and it's somewhere within the time that Snake starts aging a bit quicker but he's still relatively young. Hell, half the time I try to write about anything for Metal Gear I end up getting something wrong but fuck it, I like it like this. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Florida, David decided, was the antithesis to the cool tundra of Alaska. It's humid and noisy with birds and cicadas hidden among the trees. The night air was hot and heavy, broken by short gusts of wind that had blown back the graying strands of Dave's long hair. 

He sighed. The summer heat had driven him and Hal out of the apartment where the air conditioner refused to turn on. Hal was holding little Sunny on his hip as they strolled through the park - she was big enough that she could waddle a few steps along the sidewalk, but she soon grew weary. Her head had started to loll onto Hal's shoulders.

"Soon she's gonna be too big for me to carry," Hal jokes. He adjusts her in his arms a bit. 

Dave reached over and tucked a tuft of silver hair behind her ear. She blinked at him once, then lowered her head onto his shoulder. It startled David to realize how much the child trusted him - how she grew attached to him effortlessly. Children had a sixth sense when it came to judging who to trust.

"We should get back before dark," David said. 

It was almost eight but the days were getting longer, the sun remaining where the sky above them was growing purple over the shimmering pink.

Hal nodded. 

Their walk was a quiet one. A brief moment of serenity between them before returning to their lives of managed chaos and messes. Between missions and childcare, they rarely found a minute of peace with each other. 

As much as David loved the intensity of their family and his relationship with Hal, he also found solace in the silence that accompanied their evening walks. 

When they reached a forked path, they turned around and headed back the way they came. The dirt beneath their feet soon became cement as they got closer to the parking lot where only a handful of cars remained. Their apartment was a few blocks away.

A beige van caught David's eye when they reached the edge of the lot. It hadn't been there earlier. Hal would tell him not to worry about it - that the quiet park could have visitors well into the night. He'd tell him that they were probably teenagers or college kids getting high in the forest, but he noticed that there was no license plate and the windows were heavily tinted. He could only see the reflection of him, his partner and his daughter.

Dave felt his senses become heightened like they did during a mission. Like the air grew tighter, thinner, as the calm before the storm. 

Then a muffled footstep came from behind them - their enemy's misstep and their fortune. 

David had already drawn his gun, had almost told Hal to take Sunny and run, but the click of a safety release made him realize that they wouldn't escape like that. 

For a moment, everything froze. David had his handgun trained on a masked man, who had his small handgun aimed at Hal. Another man stood behind him, but he knew that he had his muzzle pointed at David. 

Fuck, he was outnumbered. 

His mind was going a million miles a minute. Beside him, he noticed Hal trying to suppress his trembling. He tightened his arms around Sunny and pressed his lips together, having slightly turned his shoulder towards the weapon as a way of shielding her. She remained asleep. 

"Drop your weapon," the first man barked at David. 

David hesitated, but then then man moved his finger closer to the trigger and took a step towards Hal and Sunny. The weapon he was holding was slowly placed on the ground and David rose slowly, his hands raised to his shoulders. The man motioned for him to kick it away, so he gave a quick buck of his leg and his gun went twenty feet across the parking lot. 

Luckily for him, the men each took a step closer. David felt his breathing steady, planning his next move.

"Who are you with?" 

The men were quiet for a moment. The one with his gun aimed on Hal spoke. "No one. There are just some people who don't like you."

No shit. Philanthropy had gotten some infamy over the years. It wasn't the first time that their safety was compromised, but it meant that they had to step up their efforts. 

David sighed. "Hitmen, huh?"

But they hadn't killed them yet. Either they wanted something else or they had special instructions on how to off them. David wasn't going to let them get that far. 

Before the man could speak again, David snatched his gun and spun around, pressing it against the chest of the other man and pulling his hand to his hip, then sliding the weapon out of it. He turned again, both men in front of him now. 

Hal took a couple steps back, comforting Sunny who had been roused from her sleep. 

David swiftly knocked out the man who had been prepared to shoot him. His boot connected once with his kneecap, sending him to the ground and then with his nose, making it gush blood as he laid unconsciousness on the pavement. 

The other man tried to take the moment to fight back, but David stopped him by knocking him off his feet and straddling his chest. His right fist collided with his cheek. He didn't stop. Crimson splattered over his shirt and a tooth was coughed up, sliding down the man's face. Every punch made a loud crack as it shattered the bone beneath his skin. 

Anywhere else, he would've just snapped the man's neck and been done with it. Messy wasn't his style, but David could only see red. Fuzzy, hazy and angry red and the crunch of his hits were drowned out by the screams of cicadas and the man on the ground. 

Then he was quiet, except for the gurgle of blood in his throat.

" _Snake_ ," Hal called out, jolting him back to reality for just a moment. He was standing several feet away from him. " _Snake_! C'mon, Dave, it's over."

His partner didn't get closer to him, had turned Sunny's face away from the scene and she started to cry. David didn't stop his blows.

"Dave, please, listen to me. We need to go."

Sunny wailed louder. 

The world started to come back to David. He sat back on his haunches and blinked as the park slowly stopped spinning around him. The man would be unrecognizable under the mask to whoever found his body in the morning, his face nothing but pulp and gore. 

He pushed a sweaty strand of hair out of his face, then slowly turned and got up. Facing Hal, his face had become neutral, expressionless like it did when he was on a mission, and he prayed that it was dark enough so that Hal couldn't see the glint of satisfaction in his eyes. 

The sun had almost set. Small rays of golden light shone on him, blood streaked over his chest and speckled on his face and none it belonged to him. He used the underside of his shirt to wipe the worst of it off his skin. He retrieved his gun from the other end of the lot, letting it hang heavy in the waistband of his jeans and tucked behind his bloodied shirt. 

Hal only stared at him, trying to keep his expression even while bouncing Sunny in his arms.

Without saying anything, the two started to head back. David did his best to look human, but Hal wouldn't let Sunny look at him. She had preoccupied herself with one of the longer strands of Hal's hair and he was murmuring to her, keeping her distracted.

Behind them, a pained groan sounded from the man left alive. David stopped in his tracks, then glanced at Hal. Leaving him breathing could make things messier for them. They both understood that, even if Hal hated that it made them killers.

"Go on ahead," David grumbled, passing him the gun from under his shirt. He ignored Hal's flinch when their skin brushed together.

Hal knew basic weapon skills from Dave's insistence, but let him do all the fighting. It was only in moments like these, where they separated, that Dave knew he could trust Hal to do what needed to be done to protect himself and their daughter. 

His partner nodded and kept walking, cooing at Sunny and trying to hide the nervous tremble of his voice for her sake.

When they were far enough away, David knelt by the man. He was coughing on the blood that had trickled into his mouth from his nose that was nothing more than a fleshy lump. His light eyes only showed fear, turning as wide as the moon above them.

The snap of his neck made an ugly sound that the cicadas couldn't drown out. 

-

It took David a long time to get back to the apartment. Hal didn't want to think about what he was doing. 

He had already packed most of their stuff by the time he finally returned. He had also put Sunny to sleep, hoping that she hadn't witnessed anything that a baby shouldn't see. For a moment, Dave stood in front of her and stared - she couldn't see him with blood on his shirt and bruises on his knuckles. It wasn't the image of him that he wanted her to have and a sinking feeling in his stomach kept nagging at him that it would be inevitable. Fuck, he wasn't handling this well - he was spiraling. 

Then Hal came back in. David immediately turned away from Sunny and stepped towards him, but Hal had stopped moving. He wouldn't meet David's eyes. 

When David tried to reach towards his partner, Hal pretended he didn't notice and the keys were tossed onto the counter, evading his touch. 

"Hal," David started.

"You were so brutal."

Hal's voice was quiet, but not meek. There was raw despair and fear seeping into his tone. David could only hang his head, staring holes into his shoes as he accepted what was being said to him. 

"And you wouldn't stop. You wouldn't fucking stop."

David, his voice low and uncertain, said, "But I did."

"Because of Sunny." He gestured over to the sleeping girl. "Nothing I said was reaching you, but it took her crying for the whole world to hear for you to listen. Had you forgotten that she was even there? A child watching you beat another man to death - did you even know where you were?"

It was concern and accusations and distress. David felt his heart pounding, worse than before. He struggled to find the words.

"I -" he swallowed. "I don't remember."

Hal huffed, looking resigned. "You don't remember."

They've gone through these motions before, but not while taking care of Sunny. It might have been during an early mission or another assassination attempt where something inside of David's head snapped and he lost control.

When they were younger men, Hal would leave David to his own devices - drinking, training, smoking.

Giving him space wasn't just for David's sake - Hal was still, in a way, wary of him. He just wasn't sure how to safely approach the matter. It wasn't until he found David passed out in a pool of his own vomit did he finally talk to him. Hal was more scared of losing the man than he was of confronting him.

They worked out that David had a sudden onset of psychosis fueled by stress and especially the nanos in his system. While they heightened his senses, his vigilance and his endurance, they were also working against him. The military didn't usually think farther than the battlefield, so pumping David full of nanos to make him a better soldier didn't prepare him for returning to a semi-normal life. 

Together, they got through it. Hal studied the nanos more closely, tried to ease their negative impacts through programming and David promised to learn and practice better coping skills. He delivered on that and the episodes decreased over time.

They were fools to forget.

Hal ran weary fingers through his frazzled hair. "Just - please go pull the car up front. We'll be ready by then."

He gripped the cold metal between his fingers and did as he was told. Pushing branches and brush off of the old station wagon a mile away, he tried to ignore the pounding in his head and lit a cigarette. It made him sick with guilt - he thought about how he owed it to Hal to try anything else, but old habits died hard. 

The car's engine sputtered to life and two minutes later Hal spotted him from the window, rushing down with boxes as David went to get some more.

After settling Sunny into the backseat, they silently agreed on who would drive that night. Hal pressed on the gas as they went up the ramp onto the highway, maintaining the speed limit the whole way. Being pulled over by an officer would be the fucking cherry on top of a shitty evening. 

David had a map of Florida in his lap - they were heading east to where the oak trees became palm trees and the gritty concrete turned into ancient limestone. They would be okay along the coast where they could travel north and south with one vigilant eye on the west. 

There was an unsettling silence between them. Hal was steadfast in keeping his eyes on the road with a rapt attention that he usually only possessed when he was hacking for Philanthropy. His hands were glued to the steering wheel as his brow was knit tight - Hal was always a loud thinker. David found that his words were stuck in his throat, so he reached for the knob on the radio. 

"Don't," Hal snapped. His eyes flashed towards David for a moment before returning to the interstate. His hand froze for a moment, then turned the dial anyway. It was set to a classic rock station. 

Hal rolled his eyes but didn't turn it off. David barely knew the song - he had heard it a few times back in the day, before Shadow Moses, so he started head banging to the bridge that was a dynamic guitar riff. Then the chorus started, and he mumbled along with the singer. At the high note, he leaned towards Hal and stretched out his arm, invading his space playfully.

A hint of a smile graced Hal's face, but he tried not to look at David. Turned his shoulder to him and brought his fist up to his lips, saying, "Quit it - I'm driving."

"I know," David said, before resuming his whisper-singing. Hal glanced towards Sunny in the back seat who was still asleep, exhausted from the earlier events. 

Dave went on until the song ended. He put his boot on the dashboard and pushed back against the seat, biting his lip as he played an extreme air-guitar while Hal pretended to ignore him. 

At the last note, he bent forward and mimicked the twang of the guitar. Then he heard a chuckle from Hal and he grinned. 

An advertisement for a local BBQ started playing. David took a second to just stare at Hal, smiling softly and appreciating the lighter expression that the man adorned. Some of the tension had dissipated, like letting down a drawn bow even after loading an arrow into it. 

But now it was time to pull that string back again and release. David turned his eyes towards the road and rested his elbow on the window ledge, supporting his head. He turned the volume down.

"I, uh, didn't mean to scare you," he started. "He just…wanted to hurt you and her. I think that's what set me off this time."

When he was a younger man, it would've taken weeks for David to admit something like that. It would've taken longer for him to even bring it up. However, living with Hal forced him to learn a few things. Sometimes, talking out problems was the best solution - and it got easier to do overtime. 

Hal took a deep breath. "I know. It just scared me. I'm…still scared and I know you are, too. We were doing so good."

"It's just witnessing you beat that man. To death! It's a lot to, um, process," he admitted. "And I know this is nothing new - we've done this, hell, a million times now. It's just different with a child, though. I was terrified of Sunny seeing any of it - of seeing you like that. You were unhinged. Like an animal."

"Like a monster."

"No," Hal swiftly amended. "Not like a monster. Never like a monster - I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

David interrupted - he didn't want Hal to be sorry for anything. He was the one trying to apologize. 

"Don't worry about it - it is what it is. And I did lose my mind. When I was over him, all I could think about was how much I wanted him dead. He had pointed his gun you and Sunny. I think, at this point, there's nothing else that could make me angrier than someone trying to hurt either of you. And I wanted him to suffer."

A silence polluted the front seats.

"Um," Hal said.

David continued, his voice quiet. "I know it's fucked up. That I'm, uh, fucked up. And I know I need to get a better handle of this shit and I will - for you and Sunny."

"And for yourself. It's important that you aren't afraid of yourself, too," Hal interjected.

David nodded absently. Then, he whispered, "You're right - we were doing so well. I'm sorry."

He swallowed down his self loathing. This wasn't about throwing a pity party, it was about making things right. David fucking hated the glimpse of fear he noticed when Hal looked at him after he would have an episode. This was about never making them frightened again - the last thing he wanted was to be the one to hurt them. 

Hal was passing a slow semi truck, but he looked at David anyways. He hated how easily he cried, trying to blink away some of the tears threatening to spill. 

"You…" Hal gave a shaky breath, then restarted. "I know you're always trying your best, and I know I panicked afterwords - I'm sorry for not handling it well, either. I just…need a bit of time to process it when the episodes happen. Especially now with Sunny. Because seeing that - as much as I want to think that it wasn't you, I know it was. I accept that, because I also know you're working so damn hard to be different and that it's so unfair to you that they altered you and now you're...fucked up. In a manner of speaking."

Dave smirked and snorted a laugh. Hal grinned behind his hand. Then he put it over Dave's hand, resting on the middle console.

"I know that you love me, and I know that everything you choose comes from a good place. I trust that, Dave, and we'll keep getting better at dealing with this and everything that comes our way."

Heat flashed across David's cheeks and he nodded and said, "I do love you." 

"And I love you. We'll move forward from this."

"Just give it time, huh?"

"Yeah," Hal smiled. "Just give it time."

-

Hours later, early in the morning, they holed up in a quiet motel right off the highway exit. It was on the edges of the town and the motel was cleaner than where they usually stayed - having a baby changed everything. 

Most of their stuff was left in the trunk (Hal already had apartment listings on his laptop). While he was managing all of his equipment, he glanced towards Dave.

"Tuck Sunny into bed, would you?" 

David was wearing a clean shirt and his hands were scrubbed clean. He took the girl out of her car seat and held her close as she was starting to wake up. Her small hands reached for his hair and she made a soft cooing sound. When he looked back, Hal was crossing the street where a 24/7 convenience store stood.

Walking into the dimly lit room, he started humming in an attempt to lull her back to sleep. He took extra pillows from the front desk and placed them on the perimeter of the mattress so she wouldn't fall onto the ground. Then, he pulled the soft, galaxy-print baby blanket they had gotten over her.

However, she was restless. Her fingers gripped at his clothes and she whined, trying to find something fun to do. 

"No, no. It's bedtime, Sunny," David whispered. "Time to sleep." 

He mimicked the cartoon display of sleeping, putting his head on clasped hands and pretended to snore. She giggled, not listening to what he was trying to tell her. 

"Ugh, fine," he mock-whined. "I'll lay here until you doze off."

The mattress dipped under his weight as he kneeled and rolled onto his side. His arm was stretched over her head and she shuffled closer to his side. She tried to reach her arm over his chest and he chuckled. 

He let her entertain herself to sleep. She tried talking, but she didn't quite have a grasp on forming full words but making random sounds was enough to satisfy her. Then she sound herself entranced with her own feet and she held them in the air and kicked until she started to get tired again. Her eyes fluttered shut.

Hal came back with food, quietly shutting the door when he saw his sleeping daughter curled against David. There was no tension in his face anymore despite the heavy eye bags he adorned. Their dinner was set down on the table and he took off his turtleneck and glasses. 

"If only I had a camera," he said, gesturing to the two of them.

"Too bad it went down with the tanker."

Hal laughed. Then, he slid onto the bed with his partner and tucked himself into his other side. David adjusted so they could be more comfortable and Hal twisted to turn off the lamp. 

In the dark, they were peacefully quiet. Bits of moonlight filtered through the shuttered blinds and the clock shone bright red numbers. It reminded him of how extremely exhausted he was. 

Feeling safe with his family on either side of him, he shut his eyes and focused on his breathing. David could sense Hal drifting off to sleep and Sunny was already passed out, curled tightly against him.

The instinct to keep watch was overridden with his utter desperation for rest and he felt himself drifting. 

David felt content knowing that his family would be there when he woke.

**Author's Note:**

> If you're interested in seeing the take-down that Snake used, this video shows an expert (Victor Marx) preforming the move for an audience. 
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3ZuWzK1NS0
> 
> Please note that I mixed science fiction with medicine and sudden-onset psychosis is rare and if you are struggling with any psychosis, please see a professional. I don't actually know how nanos work because nothing in this series makes any sense so I'm just running with it. I think Kojima does the same thing. 
> 
> I just want these idiots to be happy despite all the shit I put them through - they have a healthy relationship with all of its ups and downs based around mutual concern for the other's prosperity and love. Fucking love, man. I didn't want to erase their personality flaws but I hope it conveyed how they work through/around them for the higher priority of love. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment or leave a kudos!


End file.
